Before It’s Too Late

Alexander Solzhenitsyn lay in a surgical ward in a Russian camp hospital hoping to survive cancer surgery.  An acquaintance, Dr. Boris Kornfeld, came into his deserted hospital ward and sat beside his cot. That dark, lonely night fighting off delirium, Solzhenitsyn listened to Dr. Kornfeld solemnly and passionately tell of his conversion to Christ. This educated, Jewish camp doctor who was unjustly incarcerated in the Gulag told of how his cell mate had shared with him the truths of God’s love and forgiveness and how he himself had come to place his trust in Christ as his Savior. He had confined himself to the camp hospital for two months knowing there were some who wanted to end his life. In the wee hours of the morning Dr. Kornfeld left Alexander to his thoughts and went to a room to sleep.  In a few hours Dr. Solzhenitsyn was awakened by the noise of hurried orderlies carrying the mutilated body of Boris Kornfeld to an operating table. A short while after he had left Solzhenitsyn’s room he was attacked and repeatedly bashed in the head with a mallet. The words he had shared the night before concerning his new found faith were his last. However, it was those words that caused Solzhenitsyn to turn from atheism to Jesus Christ.